Schools may contract Kelly Services for substitutes

The Carson City School District is considering a partnership with staffing company Kelly Services to improve its substitute recruitment and management system, meet longterm classroom needs and relieve teacher exhaustion.

Kelly works in local communities directly through grassroots marketing, job fairs, billboards and geotargeted online approaches such as social media marketing or search engine marketing. It assumes the human resources aspects a school district handles for all of its full- and part-time staff members on behalf of its substitutes, including payroll and timekeeping, risk management, recordkeeping and workers’ compensation, but it pays its workers on a weekly basis, which the district does not.

Dan Sadler, associate superintendent of human resources, called the potential move a “celebration” for district substitutes who have been working in Carson City’s schools to becoming an employee of Kelly if an agreement is established.

Jennifer Caricelli, Kelly regional vice president, who has been with the company for 22 years, said originally it began providing temporary help in other industries. In 1999, it discovered school districts needed viable candidates as substitutes and has partnered with 9,000 schools in 41 states, filling employee positions in 33,000 classrooms daily.

CCSD has 129 total active substitutes in its database, of which 17 long-term subs filling vacancy or working on an Alternative Route to Licensure through the Nevada Department of Education. Eight are considered “super subs” and report daily at a school site. Pay rates for a certified subs are $135 per day or $18 an hour, $157.50 per day or $20 an hour for certified super subs and $195 per day or $26 an hour for long-term subs.

Carson City’s substitute vacancy fill rates now are at about 90% for the 2023-24 school year to date, but were at an average of 84% for the 2022-23 year than 71.4% for 2021-22 year, which means the district is hiring daily subs into positions. But Sadler added it is depleting its numbers because of those who are long-term subbing or are completing their teaching endorsement through the ARL program.

Sadler told the board on Sept. 12 the stress and exhaustion many full-time teachers often teach during their prep period due to the labor shortage or are experiencing further stress trying to find subs while they’re away temporarily.

“‘The exhaustion is real,’” according to feedback provided through an employee survey about having to teach on prep shared at the board meeting.

A partnership with Kelly means a slight markup in cost. Substitutes are paid the same and while there are taxes and fees for the company’s services, cost neutrality comes in a tradeoff for the software online absence management system called Red Rover. This would replace the district’s current Frontline system, Sadler said.

Board members asked about candidates’ educational background and behavioral patterns.

“Is there a certain length of time (for recruitment) if we wanted to hire them?” Trustee Richard Varner asked.

“If they were referred to us by you, they’re yours,” Caricelli said. “If we go out and recruit them, we would ask to have them on our payroll for 90 days. As much as we spend behaviorally, time on the job is important so there’s not a rash hire. We don’t feel that’s too long of a time period, but it’s a huge compliment when you do hire someone we recruit.”

Caricelli said Kelly follows all state and federal education requirements and district policies. Applicants are subject to a background screening and fingerprinting. Once hired, they can choose a cafeteria-style plan for their benefits package for medical or dental, she said.

Sadler said he spoke with the district’s principals earlier this spring about possibly beginning a partnership with Kelly and establishing a service agreement. If the district moves forward and in the future decides not to use Kelly Services, a deimplementation process would be made available, Caricelli told the board on Sept. 12.

The item was for discussion only.